Eteri Tutberidze interview 05.05.2017 | Golden Skate

Eteri Tutberidze interview 05.05.2017

Tutto

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Jan 25, 2013
I was hesitant to start a thread on this, but seeing as it is here I'll copy my post from the Russian Men thread just to give an idea what to expect:

I must say there are some things I think no coach should speak publicly about especially as it is the case with Adian who is in a bad place right now and I am sure he is not overjoyed to see all this info out there.
My own opinion of Eteri hasn't changed - she is a successful coach but I would never let her come near my child. But she is frank and openly admits that her students are the material for her 'factory' so I guess the parents are forewarned
Some points:
Adian was throwing teenage tantrums non-stop, craving for love and attention
Sergei was just throwing tantrums (probably craving the same) with his Mom holding his hand all the way (and he sent her to collect his paperwork when he left Eteri, and would not even say hello to Eteri when their paths crossed at least for the year after he left)
Polina (Shepelen) run away without saying a goodbye (same as everyone else who left with exception of Adian)
Yulia got her own portion of revelations but I won't go into that here
Moris is difficult to work with and no help from the parents
Ilia is going through a difficult period, read: teenage tantrums and no help from the parents

To sum up, with exception of Evgenia all her students were/are difficult, lazy, need to be motivated- in short, hard work, show all the signs of being humans - (surprise, surprise!), ungrateful etc etc etc... And Eteri is surprised that the students leave her without a goodbye and woudn't even pretend to be civil afterwards. WOW!
 

coldblueeyes

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Oct 25, 2014
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Brazil
To sum up, with exception of Evgenia all her students were/are difficult, lazy, need to be motivated- in short, hard work, show all the signs of being humans - (surprise, surprise!), ungrateful etc etc etc... And Eteri is surprised that the students leave her without a goodbye and woudn't even pretend to be civil afterwards. WOW!



My exact feelings about this. For the results Eteri gets, she's no bad coach. That doesn't mean a thing about her care for the skaters as people.

Also, I doubt all these skaters would act like this out of nowhere.
 

Tutto

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Joined
Jan 25, 2013
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My exact feelings about this. For the results Eteri gets, she's no bad coach. That doesn't mean a thing about her care for the skaters as people.

Also, I doubt all these skaters would act like this out of nowhere.

Exactly, especially people like Sergei who is such a winning personality (and well past his teenage years :))and liked by everybody.
There was a lot of talk about a 'campaign' against Eteri led by Elena Vaitsekhovskaya, but I always thought that there must be more in it than just a personal dislike and she simply knows more about Eteri's 'methods' than we do.
 
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silverfoxes

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Joined
Feb 16, 2014
There are surely some grains of truth in what she says, but it's also just her biased interpretation of events, and we don't know what provoked all these so-called tantrums or skaters running away from her (well, not the whole story, in most cases). If you are in a pressure cooker situation every day, then emotions are bound to come out, and everyone reacts differently to stress. Eteri seems to have an old school "my way or the highway" approach and it definitely isn't the right environment for everyone. Survival of the fittest, I suppose.
 

mrrice

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 9, 2014
I was hesitant to start a thread on this, but seeing as it is here I'll copy my post from the Russian Men thread just to give an idea what to expect:

I must say there are some things I think no coach should speak publicly about especially as it is the case with Adian who is in a bad place right now and I am sure he is not overjoyed to see all this info out there.
My own opinion of Eteri hasn't changed - she is a successful coach but I would never let her come near my child. But she is frank and openly admits that her students are the material for her 'factory' so I guess the parents are forewarned
Some points:
Adian was throwing teenage tantrums non-stop, craving for love and attention
Sergei was just throwing tantrums (probably craving the same) with his Mom holding his hand all the way (and he sent her to collect his paperwork when he left Eteri, and would not even say hello to Eteri when their paths crossed at least for the year after he left)
Polina (Shepelen) run away without saying a goodbye (same as everyone else who left with exception of Adian)
Yulia got her own portion of revelations but I won't go into that here
Moris is difficult to work with and no help from the parents
Ilia is going through a difficult period, read: teenage tantrums and no help from the parents

To sum up, with exception of Evgenia all her students were/are difficult, lazy, need to be motivated- in short, hard work, show all the signs of being humans - (surprise, surprise!), ungrateful etc etc etc... And Eteri is surprised that the students leave her without a goodbye and woudn't even pretend to be civil afterwards. WOW!

I love these stories, even though they may not be fun to read or seem overly dramatic, they sound very true to me. Boys freak out, at least I certainly did, at 15 and by 16, I had dropped out of "Regular" High School and transferred to a performing arts school for my Junior year. My Senior year, I left school completely to go on my first professional tour. It's a difficult time for teens and if they don't have involved Parents, it can be difficult for coaches to deal with. This is why I loved my Ballet Teacher SO MUCH! She convinced my Parents that I would be successful and to trust that if I got a job that I would be OK. That's exactly what happened and I have been forever grateful since.

It sounds to me like these students need a reality check. I think she should suspend them and let them discover that the grass will not be greener with a different coach. Especially if they've become rude to her or disruptive to the flow of the training sessions. In my case, my Parents couldn't have done anything to make me want go back to High School and these Parents may not be able to do much either. I will follow this story and hope it has a happy ending.
 
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andromache

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Joined
Mar 23, 2014
Highlights from my Google translate:

-Asians are just physically better at some sports. Also mentally, because they are raised to listen to authority and not ask questions.

-She calls Evgenia the product of a factory. She says people might not like that wording, but it is what it is.

-She thought Adian Pitkeev would be great "material" for the factory, but "the coaching staff had to prove their love to him on a daily basis." Sounds like an attitude problem of some sort, that she specifically attributes to "guys." (There's a lot about Adian that is kinda tough to get all of it - she thinks his parents were not supportive enough, because she doesn't interfere with her skaters' personal lives, parents need to do it.

-Americans and Canadians are more appreciative of training/ice time because they have to earn it and pay for it.

-I don't fully understand the "Education projected onto sports" point she is making here - someone help? It seems to have something to do with simply obeying and performing with no inner doubt.

-Treat quads the same as other jumps - don't celebrate or make a big deal of it when a guy lands a difficult quad. The bigger deal that is made of the it, the more it creates doubt in the mind of the athlete.

-Parents are very important in helping child athletes overcome fear. She welcomes parents in training. (This seems really interesting - in North America, we have the stereotypical "helicopter parent" who babies their child, becomes overinvolved, etc., while Eteri seems to be saying that in Russia it is just the opposite, and child athletes are given too much independence from their parents too soon.)

-Voronov trained with his mom watching. But sometimes he would stop skating and go discuss something with his mother, and Eteri didn't like this.

-Evgenia's mother and grandmother and partially why she is so successful. When she feels doubt or is tired, they support her enough for her to continue.

-Treating the Olympics as something special is why people bomb there. (Kurt Browning as an example here).

-Alina comes in and talks about how much she loves jumping. First she starts to say how much she loves to skate, but then Eteri butts in with "Do not speak with learned phrases." :laugh: (Can someone else give us the context there or what she means?)

-Some discussion of Moris that I don't fully understand - but she seems to be saying that because he skates for Georgia and not Russia, he receives less points and can't get into the best warm-up group even when he skates great. (Someone confirm?)

-"No. Lipnitskaya will never come back to me. Three hundred percent - she will not do this step. She went so far ... More than that, she realizes that I will not change. Need to work. Why should I take it back if it does not work? To make it an extras? But this is not the girl who should just be listed in the group."

-"Serafima Sakhanovich. Her family, unfortunately, could not live on two cities - my mother in Moscow, my father in St. Petersburg. In addition, various circumstances have appeared: Sima and her mother very unsuccessfully rented an apartment in Moscow, they were robbed several times. Once they climbed in the night, when Sima was asleep, my mother heard, the robber jumped back, and then they found a knife under the window ... Another time they were robbed at zero - even had to ask the federation to give Sima a second set of equipment, because there was nothing to go to the competition . Then her papa had difficulties with working in St. Petersburg, and her mother had to return, but Sim could not leave it alone. Everything was very difficult. But Sima did not want to leave, she cried ... Now, when we meet at the competitions, she always greets." (Wow, what Sima went through sounds terrible! :()

- "When I was so removed from the trip to the competitions through the federation - it was already the edge. And then, as I said, I was called to the director's office, gave flowers, thanked. And exactly ten minutes later on the federation's website there was a message that Julia left me. And an hour later in another edition - a huge article with the interview of her new coach Alexei Urmanov. It turns out, everyone knew about this, except me. And this, I think, was wrong. After all, we spent some years together and made some medals ... Of course, I was offended.
Sergey Voronov. I did not see him on the rink, his mother took the documents. And again, immediately came an interview, from which I learned that he moved to Inna Goncharenko. Now he says hello, but the first year he left, did not greet me at the competitions. Why? It's ugly. When athletes and their parents come to me, I first ask about the reason for the transition. And I really do not like it when parents start complaining about the previous coach. This in fact, in fact, means that later they will complain about you. I always say - not that you need to say hello to the previous coach, we must thank him for everything! He gave you life in sports, he taught you something. If I take you, then you are a good athlete, and in you is the merit of this coach! You can not just leave the coach without presenting flowers. At a minimum, you need to look into your eyes and find these right words."

- Some funny swearing that I can't post here on GS about how annoying reporters were when they were worried about Evgenia being starved.
 

tars

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Apr 24, 2017
It's very interesting to me, she wants parents involved to such extense.
The whole impression from the interview is, she considers parents involvement absolutely crucial in skaters development. No family support=no success.

I've always thought coach like her would rather want no witnesses at her "production process". ;)
 

moriel

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Joined
Mar 18, 2015
Interesting comment (approximate translation)

American and canadian athletes pay for the ice themselves, and frequently also earn this money themselves. They understand each minute on ice and value this minute. it is harder to make russian athletes to value those minutes because the ice time is free, because they just have it granted. They take 5 minutes to get their skates, 10 minutes to blow their noses... For them, time is not money.

Q: ... They say you are very stern.
A: Yes, i am. ... Lets translate this to a daily situation again. Parents are raising their child. They make him get up early every morning, they make him go to school, check his homework every evening, watch over him so he won´t smoke, drink or swear. Watch over him so he wont stay till 2am playing games. Are those stern parents?"

Q: Do you raise your voice to your skaters?
A: Again, imagine your son doesnt want to study. Will you fight with him or will you say "its ok, nevermind this chemistry, i never needed it in my life anyways... Dont bother with a bad grade, it isnt a big deal". Or you will fight and raise your voice, will force him to open his textbook, figure it out and do the homework?

They are all children for real life. But for the sport, they are all adults. If we treat them as children, they won´t do anything.


As a russian, I´d like to observe that maybe it is a russian mentality overall. For me, for example, the Eteri´s style seems fine. In fact, as adult, I regret a lot my parents pitied me and didnt do something like that with my tantrums and laziness.
 

moriel

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Joined
Mar 18, 2015
It's very interesting to me, she wants parents involved to such extense.
The whole impression from the interview is, she considers parents involvement absolutely crucial in skaters development. No family support=no success.

I've always thought coach like her would rather want no witnesses at her "production process". ;)

Well, it kind of makes sense: her students are children, and while she is responsible to give them knowledge, parents are responsible to educate them. Also, parents are the ones better suited to give emotional support.
She basically said she treats her students as adults on ice. Now, imagine an adult comes to work and throws a tantrum, or gets upset because boss "doesn´t like me" and so on. Just not how it works. So her thought on parents makes all sense with her phylosophy.
 

Tutto

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Joined
Jan 25, 2013
It's very interesting to me, she wants parents involved to such extense.
The whole impression from the interview is, she considers parents involvement absolutely crucial in skaters development. No family support=no success.

I've always thought coach like her would rather want no witnesses at her "production process". ;)

It seems that she wants the parents to do all the hard work for her but conveniently disappear from the scene when Eteri doesn't need them. She didn't like Yulia's mother involvement, sarcastic about Sergei's mother and Evgenia's mother and grandmother are good because they do all the motivation & support but do not intervene into training. So it is kinda contradictory to say the least
 

andromache

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Joined
Mar 23, 2014
Russian posters:

Speaking from a cultural perspective, why does it seem like Eteri has more success with girls than boys? Are boys raised to be more rebellious/independent and girls are raised to be more obedient? (This definitely used to be the case in the US, but I think it has really changed over the past few decades. I just wonder if differing socialization of the genders plays a role in how well Eteri's methods work. I'd specifically be fascinated by comparisons/contrasts between her and Mishin, considering Mishin's legacy of success with very headstrong-seeming male skaters.)
 

silverfoxes

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Feb 16, 2014
There's a big difference between the men Mishin started out coaching and the ones he has coached more recently. I am not sure "headstrong" is a word I'd use to describe Artur Gachinski, Artur Dmitriev Jr. or Alexander Petrov. I am not Russian, but I would guess that those who experienced childhood in the USSR were generally a bit tougher than the younger generation now, because they had to be.
 

vorravorra

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Apr 9, 2016
Russian posters:

Speaking from a cultural perspective, why does it seem like Eteri has more success with girls than boys? Are boys raised to be more rebellious/independent and girls are raised to be more obedient? (This definitely used to be the case in the US, but I think it has really changed over the past few decades. I just wonder if differing socialization of the genders plays a role in how well Eteri's methods work. I'd specifically be fascinated by comparisons/contrasts between her and Mishin, considering Mishin's legacy of success with very headstrong-seeming male skaters.)
Sometimes I feel Russian boys are simply spoilt, to be honest. Girls are raised to be more responsible rather than simply obedient and better able to take care of themselves. Boys and then even men, unfortunately, really can be fragile little flowers who need babying. There are a lot of exceptions to this, of course, and in Eteri's case the problem is that she can choose the most responsible, mentally tough and hard-working girls out of a large number, why she simply doesn't have that luxury with boys since there are so much fewer of them. In fact, she says in the interview that she's arrived at the conclusion that she needs to take a small boy and instil the right mentality in him herself to be successful.
 

plushyfan

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There's a big difference between the men Mishin started out coaching and the ones he has coached more recently. I am not sure "headstrong" is a word I'd use to describe Artur Gachinski, Artur Dmitriev Jr. or Alexander Petrov. I am not Russian, but I would guess that those who experienced childhood in the USSR were generally a bit tougher than the younger generation now, because they had to be.


I think the today's generation has become weaker than was in the past. I'm a teacher in a high school for many years. This is my experience.
 

ssffww

On the Ice
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Nov 30, 2015
Well, it kind of makes sense: her students are children, and while she is responsible to give them knowledge, parents are responsible to educate them. Also, parents are the ones better suited to give emotional support.
She basically said she treats her students as adults on ice. Now, imagine an adult comes to work and throws a tantrum, or gets upset because boss "doesn´t like me" and so on. Just not how it works. So her thought on parents makes all sense with her phylosophy.

A "boss" pays you. A "coach" you pay. At least that's how it works in the USA.
 

vorravorra

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Apr 9, 2016
A general impression from all of Eteri's interviews: psychology - really not her thing. Which is not the best trait in a coach.

She basically said she treats her students as adults on ice.
I think that's part of the problem. They are not (Voronov excepted). She seems to have trouble with the right kind of psychological distance from them as an adult vs. children. She either tries to pull them up to her level or brings herself down to theirs where she begins to sound like a touchy overly sensitive teenager who takes everything personally and has trouble with introspection and putting things in perspective.
 

adelia

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Oct 18, 2014
You know what the biggest difference between the men Mishin coached in the 90s/00s and the ones he coaches now? The ones he coached in the past didn't have to go to competitions coachless.
 

andromache

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Mar 23, 2014
A general impression from all of Eteri's interviews: psychology - really not her thing. Which is not the best trait in a coach.


I think that's part of the problem. They are not (Voronov excepted). She seems to have trouble with the right kind of psychological distance from them as an adult vs. children. She either tries to pull them up to her level or brings herself down to theirs where she begins to sound like a touchy overly sensitive teenager who takes everything personally and has trouble with introspection and putting things in perspective.

At what points did you get this impression? Genuinely curious. I understand that her discussions about the number of pupils she's had who never speak to her again can come off that way - but, IMO, it is very immature and unprofessional to begin flat-out ignoring the other professionals in your field once you stop working with them personally. That's how it works in an adult job, at least.

That said, there does seem to be an inconsistencies between how she views the role of parents and whether or not a teenage athlete should be treated like an adult or a child, but I suspect that part of the problem is the lack of nuance in the English translation.

I get the impression (again, based on a flawed translation) that she wants the skaters to behave as professional adults at the rink, but then be supported/treated more like children by their families at home.

It makes perfect sense, really, but it's got to be tough for any individual skater who is not yet an adult to understand and maintain entirely different expectations for how the adults in their life treat them. Parents treat you like a child, coach treats you like an adult - again, makes perfect sense, but difficult for a teenager to behave accordingly in all situations, especially when you're spending as much or more time with the coach than with the parents. It's partially why we don't allow teenagers to work full-time adult jobs :p. They don't have the maturity and would be terrible at interacting with a boss. Many struggle to make the transition to being treated like adults in college.

Being treated like adults at home may assist in making them more mature at the rink and provide some consistency for them, but Eteri finds problems with this approach as well.

It's complicated.
 

Chillyh

Spectator
Joined
Mar 17, 2014
For me, calling boys with female names if they fail their quads is not a healthy or mature approach.
 
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